Ramona: Keep calm everyone!

COUVA North MP Ramona Ramdial urged everyone to stay calm amid the excitement of the pending launch of nominations of United National Congress (UNC) candidates for the 2020 general elections. Opposition leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar met MPs and senators in one-on-one meetings at Couva today, followed by a UNC parliamentary caucus.

Speaking with Newsday on Sunday, Ramdial chuckled at the flurry of speculation recently produced by two supposed lists of UNC candidates which, she joked, even had supporters phoning her anxiously and pledging their readiness to fight.

A list of "dream team" nominees was, on Friday, dismissed as bogus by Persad-Bissessar, but speculation was kept alive on Sunday by another newspaper’s own “list” of nominees. Ramdial’s name was not on either list, but she was totally unfazed.

Newsday asked if she’d be making herself available to be a candidate. “Oh, yes, yes,” she replied.

“When the screening process comes up in a couple of months before the general election, yes definitely. By the end of 2020 I will have had a second term in Parliament and I intend to go back up for a third time. So yes I would be engaging in the screening process.”

Ramdial reckoned she had a good track record as an MP.

“My record is quite okay. I don’t think I’m blemished. I won’t toot my own horn, but I’ve been in Parliament in government and opposition and have been speaking out on a lot of issues for constituents and national issues, as is the requirement of an Opposition MP. I’ve been doing some work on the ground also, hosting various events in my constituency and lobbying the Government for resources like infrastructure.”

Ramdial said many individuals would likely seek to be the Couva North candidate, and she was very comfortable with this.